Internet Filtering in China in 2004 2005 

MII oversees China's Internet infrastructure; physical access is provided by nine state licensed Internet 

access providers (IAPs), each of which has at least one connection to a foreign Internet backbone.

23

  IAPs 

peer at three Internet exchange points (IXPs) run by the state.

24

  IAPs grant regional Internet service 

providers (ISPs) access to backbone connections.  Over 620 ISPs were registered in July 2001, and far 

more exist today.

25

Figure 1   Internet Access Providers

26

Company Name 

Audience 

Network Name 

Bandwidth 

(Mb/s) 

China Telecom 

General public 

CHINANET 

46268 

China Netcom/CNCNet 

Broadband 

CHINA169 

19087 

users 

China Science and Technology Network 

Researchers 

CSTNET 

5275 

China Unicom 

Businesses 

UNINET 

1645 

China Mobile 

CMNET 

1130 

China Education and Research Network 

Schools 

CERNET 

1022 

China Intl. Economic and Trade Net  

CIETNET 

2 

China Great Wall Communications 

CGWNET 

Under 

construction 

China Satcom 

CSNET 

Under 

construction 

The MII regulates ownership and operation of telecommunications services; the Ministry refused 

to allow foreign companies to offer Internet access in competition with China's ISPs until China was 

accepted for entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001.

27

There has been considerable debate about the complicity of Western corporations in the 

development and maintenance of China s filtering system.  China's Internet infrastructure includes 

equipment and software from U.S. companies, including Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, Sun 

Microsystems, and 3COM.

 28

  Cisco Systems in particular has been integral to China's Internet 

23

 CNNIC, 15

th

 Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China. 

24

 CNNIC, 15

th

 Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China. 

25

 Human Rights Watch, Freedom of Expression and the Internet in China, at 

http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/china bck 0701.htm. 

26

 CNNIC, 15

th

 Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China. 

27

 Carolyn Duffy Marsan, China: ISPs Report Major Growth in 2004, Network World Fusion, Dec. 20, 2004, at 

http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/isp/2004/1220isp1.html. 

28

 Asian Technology Information Program, Report ATIP98.090: The Internet in China   See Greg Watson, China's 

Golden Shield: Corporations and the Development of Surveillance Technology in the People's Republic of China, at 

http://go.openflows.org/ (2001) (describing how American and European technology was used to build China's digital 

surveillance network); see also Ethan Gutmann, Losing the New China at 127 172 (2004). 

6